The Future is September

When looking into the "key elements" of teacher librarianship, I feel like I am at a bit of a loss. I have recently won a posting to be a full time Teacher librarian at a grade 6-8 middle school that will start in September but I have no practical experience. 

I decided that a personal philosophy was the most important thing to develop before stepping into my new space. It will guide what I weed, rearrange, and add to the space. So to create my personal vision for this assignment I looked to three areas for inspiration: my experience as a classroom teacher and as an LAT, the context of library I am inheriting, and professional readings.

My classroom and LAT experience:

It seems my actions are always reactions to my current situation and this has held true for this assignment and how I am approaching my new posting. For about 12 years, I was an English teacher and I loved have our vague PLOs and not having textbooks we are expected to use. I embraced that each teacher was professionally supported when choosing their own literary path by which their students gained skills and understanding. I have longed for that feeling ever since I left the English department about 5 years ago. For the last 7 years as an LAT, I worked with many kids who did not feel comfortable or confident in the library. There were no audiobooks, the graphic novel collection was fairly slim (but is now growing considerably), there were few engaging "quick reads" but more than that, the library was an exclusively word based location. Very few of my reading LD kids – whether it was true or not - could see themselves succeeding in that space. I wanted a philosophy that would actively and continuously include these types of populations that went beyond them taking books out.

My new library:

I wanted to hear from the staff before making any changes to the library learning commons so I created a Google Form and sent it to the entire teaching staff as well as the student support staff such as the LAT, resource teacher, Aboriginal Advocate, literacy intervention teacher, the behavior teacher, and the counsellor. Because of my experience as a support staff teacher, I felt very strongly about getting their opinion.

Check out my Google Form here.

My plan is to have staff fill it in at the end of each year so I can develop my programming with them in mind. By the end of my first year as a TL I will have a Google Form for students to give me feedback as well. I checked out the student survey on pages 80-82 of The Learning Commons: Seven Simple Steps to Transform Your Library and think I will use those questions as my inspiration.

Readings:

I grabbed New on the Job: A School Library Media Specialist's Guide to Success for guidance since the title seemed to fit my situation quite well and it has a section dedicated to developing a philosophy.  One quote stuck out to me: "it is important that your philosophy… [is] fairly brief so [it] can be easily recalled. If you need to look [it] up, [it is] not really part of how you manage your program. (2)"

Another think that resonated with me was the question that got Joyce Valenza to develop her manifesto, "We're all doing different stuff. The other school librarians I know are not doing what I am doing. Some maintain Web sites and blogs; others do not. Some have seriously retooled; others have not. In the 21^st century, what does a school librarian do?"  

The retiring TL and I are very different. He is very tech inclined and the staff really used his wide range of skill and knowledge. Every staff member I talked to so far has asked how my tech skills are. Mine aren't bad but they are nowhere near the retiring TL's. It really got me thinking about my personal philosophy and how publishing it widely could possibly help ease the transition from one TL to the next.

How My Thinking Grew:

My philosophy shouldn't be about me and my skills; it should be about the skills we want students to have and values we espouse. Having an open ended philosophy allows each TL to be different and to play to their strengths and interests while being responsible to their school community's needs.  It should be able to evolve over time as staff, students, technology and culture changes.  And, it should be easy to remember and should guide all activities that occur within the walls.  As well, I believe in explicitly telling kids which skill they are engaging in so they can see themselves as having those traits.  So, instead of "I went to the library today" hopefully they say, "I investigated and collaborated today."

The result…My Philosophy:

The –ate + 1 things you can do in this space:

·         Take

1.    Curate

2.    Create

3.    Evaluate

4.    Re-create

5.    Investigate

6.    Participate

7.    Collaborate

8.       Communicate

Here is the fancy poster version of it that I plan to have printed on poster paper and plastered at the entrance.  

I built it on Adobe Spark Post, a free app that lets you create all sorts of cool projects. (This is my new favorite app. There is definitely a learning curve to this app and it is super addictive when looking for the exact right image, font, color, etc. This poster took me probably two hours to create because I delved so deeply into all the options.)

So the items I plan to share widely are the posters and the Google Form.

References

Harland, P. C. (2011). The learning commons: Seven simple steps to transform your library. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2007). New on the job: A school library media specialists guide to success. Chicago: American Library Association.

Valenza, J. (2010, December 03). A revised manifesto. Retrieved July 2, 2018, from http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2010/12/03/a-revised-manifesto/